Summer Vacation...It's hard to believe that a year has already passed since the last summer vacation. I think back to what I did last summer and honestly it was such a blur that I often have to look back at my blogs to remember just what all I did and accomplished. Last summer I didn't really have any athletic goals since I had just finished what at the time was the hardest race I had ever trained for. I felt a little aimless since my half ironman was in May and that left June and July open to anything. This year is very different because I am training for what will be the biggest mental and physical test: Ironman Maryland. Last summer I was able to sleep in every morning and occasionally rise early to meet my running group for a workout before the sun came up. This year I am up early most mornings for a workout of some sort: swimming, biking, or running. This particular week I am doing a lot of swimming (every day) because of a weird injury I got on a run last Friday.

While running at a moderate pace with Haro, near the ECU football stadium, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my lower calf. This was all after a couple days of feeling tightness there, but I hadn't really given it a second thought. This sharp pain stopped me dead in my tracks and I limped a half mile (seriously) back to the car. For the next two days I wore my old boot from back when I broke my foot YEARS ago. Now I still have a slight pain in my leg that causes me to walk slow and have a bit of a limp. 
​
The great thing about being a triathlete is that when you are broken in one (or two) sports, you can likely still participate in another. Although I really don't want to deal with an injury right now, I can take this time to work on my swimming. My foot doesn't like kicking, so I have been doing "pull" workouts where basically I do the entire workout with nothing but my arms doing the work, and my legs floating behind me. I have not tried any speed with this, but rather I have been working on long distance swimming. Just because your legs don't work doesn't mean that you cant get a good arm workout in!

How did I forget to announce that I qualified for the World Team??(I need to get on a better blogging schedule) My goal this year was to qualify for the World Team. To my surprise, I did it! Although I would have liked to have performed a little better, I was proud that I crossed the finish line! It was a pretty hot day, and I was dealing with some foot pain from a mysterious injury that I somehow got the week before. Even though I made the team, I made the touch decision to not go to World Championships because the price tag was too much. I am already trying to pay for Ironman, so adding the stress of finding a way to pay for Worlds was just going to be too much. I can at least walk away from this and say "I am a World Team Qualifier" which that alone is something to be proud of.

I plan to be able to blog much more frequently, as I just got a new laptop since mobile devices (phones and iPads) don't surf the web or make blogging an easy task. I just got the new computer today so it will take me a day or so to learn my way around the operating system and get pictures transferred so that these blogs can have a little more color! In the meantime, I need to get ready for workout number two of the day: a 25 mile bike ride! This morning I did a 2000 yard swim, so I'm excited to be able to take the next workout outside! Until next time... (Which I promise will be in a few days, if not sooner!

So tonight Demetrius and I were sitting on the couch having a conversation about who knows what and suddenly I said, " I wonder if I could make muffins with fruits and vegetables in them!" I realize that in the freezer I have a bag of mixed fruit and kale that I used to use for smoothies but have not used in quite some time. I have an old recipe from Betty Crocker that is a great recipe for blueberry muffins. Being that I am trying to eliminate dairy products from my diet I figured that this would be an easy recipe to modify because the only two dairy products in this recipe are milk and an egg. It's easy to substitute dairy milk for any other type of milk but I only use coconut milk because I do not like soy milk and don't particularly care for almond milk either. It's very easy to substitute an egg for a quarter of a cup of unsweetened applesauce. After Demetrius left to go to work I headed to the kitchen and started working on what would be my new kitchen vegan creation. The result is absolutely out of this world. I will include the recipe at the bottom of this blog post. The challenge to myself of eliminating most dairy products from my diet has been a very exciting process because I am learning about foods that I have never tried before and I'm also learning that many of the vegan options actually tastes better. Not only that I feel better about what I'm eating because no animals were harmed in the process of making the food. Try the recipe, see if you can make any modifications of your own, and post below. If you have any questions about the recipe please feel free to ask in the comments section below. Happy cooking!

3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1 cup frozen fruit (I used Wyman's of Maine strawberry, blueberry, cherry, and kale mix)
1/2 cup fresh strawberries (cut small)

​Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Grease the bottom only of 12 medium muffin cups or use reusable silicone cups. Mix milk oil and eggs then stir in flour sugar baking powder and salt all at once just until everything is combined. Stir in flaxseed. Pour in the frozen fruit and the strawberries. Stir it up until everything is mixed in and then divide the divide the batter among muffin cups. Sprinkle the top of the muffins with sprinkle the top of the muffins with either more flaxseed or wheat germ. In the pictures that I have included in this blog post the red cups have flaxseed sprinkled on top and the blue cups have wheat germ sprinkled on top. Put the muffins into the oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Enjoy!